Museum Entrance

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Welcome to the Museum ofWelcome to the Museum ofThe Vietnam warThe Vietnam war

Curator’s Offices

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Curator’s Office

Contact me at worldhistory04@gmail.com

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Andrew Francis

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Note: Virtual museums were first introduced by educators at Keith Valley Middle School in Horsham, Pennsylvania. This template was designed by Dr. Christy Keeler. View the Educational Virtual Museums website for more information on this instructional technique.

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Political effects RoomPolitical effects Room

Room 2

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Economic Effects RoomEconomic Effects Room

Room 3

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Geography of the warGeography of the war

Room 4

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Artifact 13 Artifact

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Artifact 14

Social effects of the warSocial effects of the war

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Intellectual/Arts RoomIntellectual/Arts Room

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The peace treaty of Vietnam also known as the Paris peace accords was signed on January 27 1973. The signing of this document resulted in a temporary cease fire between north and south Vietnam. It also was the end of open u.s military involvement in the war. However this was not the end of the war the treaty was soon violated by both sides and conflict continued.

http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE53&iPin=treaties00199&SingleRecord=True

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Signing of The peace treaty of Vietnam

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As the Vietnam war continued to drag itself out for a longer and longer period of time it became more and more unpopular. This led to protests at first they were isolated event s taking place on college campuses or in other similar environments they soon became a nation wide occurrence these protests expressed the American opinion of the war in Vietnam and called for an end in American involvement.

http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-protests

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Picture of anti war protest

During the war the draft was put into effect this was wildly unpopular and resulted in the creation of nation wide draft resistance movements some of which created an underground railroad which they used to help those that had been drafted to leave the country so many people did this that the government was eventually forced to grant amnesty to any individual or group that had left the country to escape the draft.

http://depts.washington.edu/antiwar/vietnam_draft.shtml

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Draft resistance button

The b 52 bomber was the plane relied on most heavily during operation rolling thunder. Operation rolling thunder marked the American entry into armed conflict with the Vietnamese. Operation rolling thunder was authorized by president Johnson on February 13, 1965 however due to a series of delays the first bombing runs did not begin until March 2 1965

http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/timeline/

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B52bomber

As with any war the Vietnam war produced casualties 58,209 American lives were lost throughout the course of the war while this does not seem like an over whelming number the conflict did effect the economy between these deaths and the number of men put into combat and the number of men who came back unable to work due to injury the American work force suffered from a lack of laborers

http://tent20.com/comparing-casualties-from-vietnam-iraq-afghanistan-a-primer/

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Casualty chart

During times of peace American defense expenditures are 3.6% of gdp. During the Vietnam war they were about 10% this increase of spending caused a growth in military employment options.

www.usgovernmentspending.com/defense_spending

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US defense spending chart

During the Vietnam war millions of dollars were spent on the war effort. This money obviously had to come from somewhere as well as being taken from tax payers it was always taken from other budgets such as that of infrastructure and education www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=1297

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Cold war expenditures chart

The sending of millions of dollars overseas with no monetary return combined with social spending created budget deficits which fueled inflation.

www.historycentral.com/sixty/economics/Vietnam.html

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20 century Inflation chart

On average Vietnam gets 76.5inches of rain each year as you can imagine this creates a rather wet climate this climate made it hard for soldiers in the field to keep themselves and their gear dry this resulted in the infection of cuts the rotting of feet and other similar problems.

http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/city.php3?c=VN

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Precipitation map of Vietnam

Vietnams average annual temperature is 76.6dgrees Fahrenheit it never drops below69.3 or rises higher than 82. This relatively warm climate not only helps to provide the perfect environment for molds and infection to grow on wet areas but also poses the threat of heat exhaustion and dehydration.

http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/city.php3?c=VN

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Temperature map of Vietnam

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Most of Vietnam is covered by dense jungle this made it hard to fight the vietcong because they knew the knew the jungle whereas Americans did not. Another problem posed by the jungle was that it was very easy to disguise traps in the thick under brush.

http://www.phschool.com/atschool/ahon/history_interactive/mvl-9272/common_player.html

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The jungle

Along with the jungle American troops had to deal with tunnels dug by the Vietnamese. These tunnels could house up to 16000 soldiers and ran up to 23 feet deep. They were often trapped to prevent invasion.

http://www.phschool.com/atschool/ahon/history_interactive/mvl-9272/common_player.html

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The tunnels

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Artifact 13

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Artifact 14

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Artifact 15

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Artifact 16

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The Vietnam war inspired many movies one such movie was full metal jacket. Directed by Stanley Kubric the movie follows a group of aspiring marines through basic training highlighting the mental strain that it puts on recruits with a gruesome homicide suicide scene in which a private shoots his drill instructor and then him self. The movie then jumps forward in time following one private through his Vietnam experience. With the closing scene the director makes it apparent that he believes the war to be a pointless waste of human life.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093058/

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Full metal jacket

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Another movie inspired by the horrors of Vietnam was platoon directed by Oliver Stone and starring Charlie Sheen the movie follows a young recruit who has a moral crisis when faced with the horrors of war and the duality of man. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091763/

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Platoon

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Along with movies the war also inspired protest songs. Written by Joe McDonald in 1965 the song uses GI humor to address the horror of going to war.gi humor is a kind of dark sarcasm.

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I feel like I'm fixing to die rag

Created in 1982 the Vietnam veterans war memorial honors the over 58,000men who gave their lives in service to their country and the world.

http://www.nps.gov/vive/planyourvisit/index.htm

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Vietnam veterans war memorial

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Written by tim O'Brien the things they carry explores the emotional baggage that soldiers carry into war and how it effects their decision making process during their pre war war and post war lives.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/thingscarried/

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The things they carry

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This 1972 documentary chronicles the Winter Soldier Investigation that investigated the occurrence of war crimes in Vietnam by U.S. forces. There isn't much narrative here; the film mostly just records a series of vets going up to a microphone, each telling of a grisly, awful tale of murder and violence against the civilian Vietnam population. While some have questioned the veracity of the stories told within the film, this documentary is nonetheless compelling viewing.

http://warmovies.about.com/od/TopPicks/tp/Top-10-Vietnam-Films-Of-All-Time.htm

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Winter Soldier

This 1974 film has been criticized for being heavily manipulative in its editing and presentation of facts. Nonetheless, the film's point remains, that there remains a tremendous gulf between the ideals alluded to by President Lyndon Johnson of "winning the hearts and minds" and the reality of warfare, which is often violent, horrible, and antithetical to the idea of winning over the native population.

http://warmovies.about.com/od/TopPicks/tp/Top-10-Vietnam-Films-Of-All-Time.htm

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Hearts and minds

Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam classic is infamous for its troubled production, which included the film's star Martin Sheen having a heart attack, the destruction of several sets in the Philippines, and Marlon Brando showing up on set severely overweight for his role as the rogue Green Beret Colonel Kurtz. Despite all of this, the eventual film, which followed Sheen's Captain Willard as he travels deep into the jungles of Vietnam on a secret mission to assassinate the crazed Colonel Kurtz, ended up as a classic of modern cinema. Though not a realistic war film, it is perhaps, the most gripping, thought-provoking war film ever made. A hallucinogenic dream-like descent into madness (which I suppose is supposed to be a metaphor for the process of engaging in warfare) is intense visceral viewing.

http://warmovies.about.com/od/TopPicks/tp/Top-10-Vietnam-Films-Of-All-Time.htm

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